Massive road job 'halfway there'
With one lane under reconstruction near Haystack Creek, tourists cruise past the work zone along Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier Park in summer 2004. The $200 million reconstruction of the alpine highway now is about halfway completed .
Editor’s note: This is the final installment of a Daily Inter Lake series looking at the top stories of the past decade.
Comprehensive reconstruction of Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road has easily been the project of the past decade for Northwest Montana — and it will be again for much of the next decade.
“I would say it really stands out,” said Jack Gordon, Glacier’s landscape architect and lead coordinator for the massive project. “I’m reminded when I look back that we used to have $2 million projects that went on for two or three years. Next year, we’re looking at $30 million worth of work on Sun Road.”
The project has evolved from conception to planning and on to actual construction over nearly 15 years.
It was an eye-opener for then-Superintendent Dave Mihalic in 1995 when a 180-foot section of the road was washed out by floodwaters near the West Tunnel. Mihalic recognized that the road had not had any significant, comprehensive reconstruction since it was opened to vehicle traffic in 1933, and he was concerned about the potential for future catastrophic events.
Soon after, the Secretary of Interior appointed a Citizens Advisory Committee made up of Flathead area business and community leaders to explore options for the best ways to rebuild the road without entirely closing it at a cost to the local economy.
After several years of work, the committee made its recommendations in 2001 for a “shared use” strategy that would ensure that at least one lane of road remained open in construction sections during summer visitor seasons.
There were provisions to have both lanes closed in construction zones during the spring and fall “shoulder seasons.” And there was an emphasis on mitigating impacts to park visitors by, for example, establishing a free park transit system to reduce traffic on the road.
An environmental impact statement was developed over an 18-month period, followed by additional studies and planning, and the rehabilitation project got started in mid-decade.
At the time, the work was projected to cost $140 million to $170 million and it was expected to take about eight years to complete. The price tag has since grown because of unexpected setbacks, such as heavy flooding damage on the road in 2006, as well as steep increases in materials costs.
“We believe with some level of certainty that we’re looking at $200 million now,” Gordon said, noting that about $100 million has been spent so far.
The project also was expected to carry on through 2019, but that projection has changed largely because of a sudden infusion of funding from last year’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The funding will allow, for the first time, two major phases of construction to be under way concurrently during the 2010 construction season — one from the Big Bend to Logan Pass and the other from Logan Pass to Siyeh Bend.
“It depends on how much simultaneous work we can do [in future years], but I would expect the completion to be shortened by at least a few years” from the 2019 projection, Gordon said. “We’re about halfway there.”
The 2010 program will also include the start of subgrade work and overlays on a 10-mile segment of road along Lake McDonald that was last worked on in 1991, along with similar work in segments on a seven-mile section from Avalanche to the West Tunnel.
That work will be carried out during the shoulder seasons to avoid excessive impacts on Sun Road travelers during the peak visitor season.
But reconstruction through the road’s alpine section has been the priority, and working on a road that is chiseled into sheer slopes below dozens of avalanche chutes is challenging, to say the least.
With a short construction season of about five months, contractors also must deal with work-schedule restrictions and caps on how long traffic can be delayed.
Besides rebuilding and reinforcing the road’s subsurface, the work has involved installing improved drainage structures and rebuilding elaborate retaining walls. Specific rock and masonry work has been required for the road’s guardwalls.
But it hasn’t been done for more than 75 years.
“It’s been in need for a long time,” Gordon said.
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com